"You can't absorb this Soul Ring!"
Lin Qian flicked a finger, and the purple Soul Ring scattered on the wind.
"..."
Silence reigned in the Star Dou Great Forest today...
If anyone here was the angriest, it had to be Hu Liena.
Over the course of their journey, her impression of this junior brother she had acquired so cheaply had improved considerably. Who knew he would either do nothing or make a spectacular splash? His very first move had sent the Soul Ring already at her lips flying away.
Three thousand years... that was three thousand years!
A sacrificed Soul Beast's ring could be absorbed directly regardless of a Soul Master's level, with absolutely no side effects and no risk of exploding to death.
But thanks to Lin Qian's interference, the chicken had flown away and the eggs had shattered!
You look so handsome, but you're actually thick-skinned and black-hearted. So this was what you had waiting for me!
Fuck you, give me a refund!
"Your Highness the Holy Son, perhaps you could explain?"
Ghost Douluo stood to one side, frantically signaling to Lin Qian. He didn't mind himself. If the Soul Ring was gone, they could find another. Hu Liena was what worried him.
Seeing her murderous expression, he felt they needed to clear things up. Otherwise, if they returned to Spirit Hall with the relationship between the senior sister and junior brother shattered and no Soul Ring found, he didn't know whether anyone else would suffer, but Pope Bibi Dong certainly wouldn't let him off.
"Senior Sister, I didn't mean anything else by it. I just thought you shouldn't absorb that type of Soul Ring."
Hu Liena clenched her small hands, her full chest rising and falling. Only after quite a while did she speak hoarsely. "Why?"
Lin Qian said, "Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a Qingqiu Kingdom, home to foxes with nine tails and four legs, known in full as Nine-Tailed Heavenly Foxes. The Douluo Continent has a long-standing heritage. If you could obtain an auspicious creature from myth, perhaps a god might take notice of you."
"A god..."
Hu Liena was no fool. Quite the opposite: her exceptional talent and impoverished upbringing had made her mature early and become extraordinarily clever.
"You mean that if I change the direction of my cultivation, I might obtain a god's inheritance?"
Lin Qian kept it brief. "Take a gamble, and your bicycle could become a motorcycle."
There was a basis for his words.
Of the Shrek Seven Devils in the original story, not one had the potential to become a god except that cheating bastard Tang San.
Ning Rongrong was constrained by the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda and could never advance beyond Eight-Ring Soul Douluo in her lifetime.
Zhu Zhuqing and Dai Mubai came from the Star Luo Imperial Family. A dignified imperial prince and noble young lady couldn't even survive in their own home territory, getting driven from place to place like stray dogs until they concealed their identities in the Heaven Dou Empire.
As for Ma Hongjun and Oscar, if they hadn't struck gold by joining the protagonist's party, who knew where they would have spent their lives grinding away in the wild.
The last one, that hundred-thousand-year-old rabbit Xiao Wu, needed even less explanation. Had she not become the protagonist's woman, she couldn't even have kept herself safe.
Every single person mentioned above had become a god simply because they followed Tang San.
Hu Liena already had rank-thirty Soul Power at twelve, and her talent was no worse than theirs.
Lin Qian believed that with his guidance, taking her to godhood would be a sure thing!
A Nascent Soul cultivator, backed by immortal arts-failing to ascend with all that would be far too lame.
Hu Liena asked again, "So when you scattered the Soul Ring just now, you were helping me?"
Lin Qian nodded. "Exactly. Once a sacrifice begins, it can't be stopped. If I hadn't acted quickly, you would have absorbed it by now."
With her answer, Hu Liena's mood recovered, but a powerful sense of guilt also arose.
So he really was helping me, and he even considered my future...
"No time to waste. Let's find you a Soul Ring first!"
Unaware of her thoughts and not particularly concerned about them, Lin Qian continued forward after speaking.
The sooner he found her a Soul Ring, the sooner he could extricate himself and go find Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
Two hours later.
Taking advantage of his familiarity with the terrain, Lin Qian successfully found a four-thousand-year-old Celestial Fox. Its name might not have been long, but what made it rare was its trace of divinity, which suited Hu Liena perfectly.
Repeating the same method as before, he had this Celestial Fox voluntarily sacrifice itself out of fear of him. The Soul Ring settled directly around Hu Liena, gentle Soul Power enveloping her, with absolutely no need to worry about exploding to death.
"I did it!"
Hu Liena soon finished absorbing it. Watching the purple Soul Ring slowly rise, she couldn't hide her excitement.
Ghost Douluo nodded in satisfaction. "Rank thirty-two. Very good!"
Having followed the path of charm for so long, Hu Liena was not a coy person. This time, however, after absorbing her Soul Ring, she fidgeted bashfully, her pretty face slightly flushed.
"It's all thanks to Lin Qian~"
With the relationship between senior sister and junior brother improving, Ghost Douluo laughed heartily. "You're both disciples of the Pope. There's no distinction between you. His credit is your credit too!"
After laughing for a while, Lin Qian asked, "Senior Sister, what's your Soul Skill? Is it different from your first two?"
Hu Liena nodded. "Yes, very different." She released her Soul Skill into the empty air. "Third Soul Skill-Enchanted Realm!"
The purple Soul Ring flashed, instantly forming a square illusion realm that enveloped them all.
"My third Soul Skill can drain an enemy's spiritual energy and Soul Power. It can also interfere with their judgment and weaken their strength, and the illusion realm will gradually expand as my Soul Power increases."
After hearing her description, Lin Qian and Ghost Douluo exchanged a glance. They didn't quite understand it, but it sounded impressive.
With those functions, it could practically serve as an Innate Domain!
Ghost Douluo said, "As expected of a Soul Beast with divinity. Only four thousand years old, yet already so powerful!"
At his words, Hu Liena couldn't help glancing at Lin Qian again. Autumn ripples shimmered in her beautiful eyes, filled with tenderness like water. Enhanced by her natural charm, she looked all the more enchanting.
Unfortunately, her flirtatious glance was wasted on a blind man. Lin Qian, that old Nascent Soul dog, remained unmoved and didn't even spare her a look.
"Now that Nana has obtained her third Soul Ring, it's time I got my own."
Ghost Douluo immediately responded, "Just say the word, Your Highness. I'll find it and bring it back for you to absorb directly."
Thinking of that group of literal demons and monsters beneath the Lake of Life, Lin Qian refused outright. "No. After I take you home, I'll go alone. That place is at the very heart of the Star Dou Great Forest. You wouldn't be able to handle it."
Hearing that last sentence, Ghost Douluo instantly lost his nerve. But under Pope Bibi Dong's tyrannical authority, he didn't dare actually leave Lin Qian behind.
What if he died?
Noticing his hesitation, Lin Qian offered no further explanation. He took them home, settled them in, and set off alone, intending to make a quick trip there and back-in an ideal world.
After leaving the cabin, Lin Qian uncharacteristically did not head deeper into the forest. Instead, he went in the opposite direction, stopping only when he reached the edge at the forest's other end.
There were no high-level animals here, only ten-year and hundred-year Soul Beasts. Without exception, they fled at the sight of Lin Qian, instantly clearing the surrounding area.
The god-level Silver Dragon King slumbered in the Lake of Life. Absorbing a ring there would be too risky, and he didn't want to be discovered either, so Lin Qian had chosen this place, so far removed that even eight poles couldn't reach it.
He figured that with Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's million years of spiritual power, establishing a connection would be so easy.
After all, even Huo Yuhao, a rank-ten weakling in the original story, could do it. There was no reason he couldn't.
His mind made up, he sat cross-legged and released his spiritual power.